Page 73 of Unexpected Trouble

“She has everything to do with this,” Alex said, pointing a finger at me. “But I get it. If it wasn’t for having Lexi in my life, I might have been interested.”

“I’m not seeing anyone,” Harv said with a wide grin.

“Keep your fucking hands off of Maggie,” I growled, and everyone laughed.

“Yeah, guys, keep your hands off her; he has already called dibs.” Trevor smirked my way.

“What the hell does that mean?”

“It means, you’ve already tapped that. Maggie told me all about it.”

“She did not!” I spouted abruptly and then laughed.

“Oh, yeah, she did!”

The guys all busted my balls for a few minutes, and the more I tried to deny it, the harder they beat on me.

Finally, Jake wrangled them back in. “Alright, guys, we all know she’s off the market, and Blaire over there can deny it all he wants. I will watch out for her.”

The door opened, and Alice poked her head into the room. She was in a much better mood now, and I wondered if Jake had finally apologized to her. “Gregory, there is a detective here to speak with you.”

Trevor started laughing. “You going to be arrested now?”

“No, douchebag, I’m not,” I said as I got to my feet. “I’ll be right back.”

In the entry, Det. Highmore was waiting, and we shook hands. “Do you have someplace that we can talk privately?”

“Yeah, sure, come on this way. Alice, if they finish, let Alex know that I’m using his office for a few.”

“You got it,” Alice called out cheerily. Damn, whatever Jake did for her must have been fantastic. She was like a different woman.

I closed the door behind the detective and told him to have a seat as I rounded the desk. “What’s up? Did you guys catch Len?”

“Not yet, but we discovered some rather disturbing news.”

“Yeah, what’s that?”

“Len and his cousin owed money to a cartel, quite a lot of money, and that robbery was a last-ditch effort to try to settle the debt.”

“Damn, did Chuck tell you that?”

He shook his head. “He had told us a little bit, but we put the pieces together after he was killed.”

“Wait. What? Chuck’s dead?”

“Yeah, the prison says it was suicide, but an inside source says there was a hit put on him.”

“So they are looking for Len too, then, huh?”

“It’s a little worse than that, Greg.”

“What do you mean, it’s a little worse than that?”

“They are going after all the hostages.”

Every nerve in my spine prickled as I tensed. “What are you talking about?”

“They are targeting all the witnesses. Five of them have already turned up dead.”

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